Toiling on golf’s mini-tours isn’t exactly living the dream. But for Boyd Summerhays and dozens of other competitors at the Colorado Open, their dream of reaching the PGA Tour remains very much alive.
Summerhays, 30, played for three years on golf’s biggest stage, from 2004-06, and yearns to return. Perhaps rounds like his 4-under-par 67 on Thursday at Green Valley Ranch will give him the confidence and momentum to advance through the PGA Tour qualifying stages this fall.
That, and some luck with his health.
“Yeah, I’ve been through about everything,” Summerhays said. He enters today’s second round two strokes behind co-leaders Derek Tolan and Aaron Goldberg, who took advantage of unusually calm afternoon conditions to breeze around the par-71, 7,042-yard layout in 65.
Summerhays didn’t have much of a chance on the PGA Tour. The day before he was to hop on a plane for the 2004 Houston Open, the former Oklahoma State golfer injured his back while practicing at home in Salt Lake City. He played on the PGA Tour the next two years on medical exemptions but broke two toes in 2005 when somebody toppled a rack of plates in a hotel breakfast line. Then, before the 2006 tour schedule, he fractured a finger playing pickup basketball.
Summerhays, who birdied the three par-5s on Thursday, plays well here. He lost in a four-man playoff in the 2008 Colorado Open, won by Brian Guetz, and claimed the 2003 Denver Open, also at Green Valley Ranch. His game finds a comfort zone here, but, frankly, Summerhays might have given up tournament golf by now if he had not already tasted the top level.
“Three years of injuries gets frustrating,” he said. “But I got out there (on the PGA Tour) one time, and I have to believe I can do it again.”
Tolan and Goldberg are just beginning their quest to reach the “The Show.” Tolan turned pro this spring after completing his eligibility at Colorado and already has a victory — at the San Juan Open in Farmington, N.M. Goldberg, the 2008 Mountain West player of the year at San Diego State, is in his first full year on the Canadian Tour.
Both plan to give PGA Tour qualifying a shot this fall.
“I just played pretty steady and solid — and fun,” said Tolan, who rolled in a 5-footer for eagle on the par-5 18th after a 288-yard, 3-wood second shot landed where it was intended.
Goldberg, playing in his first Colorado Open, recorded an unconventional eagle after driving the green on the par-4, 326-yard fourth to within 30 feet.
A stroke back at 66 are Gateway Tour player Chris Kamin and two club pros: Vince Jewell, a Las Cruces, N.M., native who works in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and Robert Hunt, an assistant at The Links at Highlands Ranch and the 2008 Denver Open champion.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
